I sometimes feel like all I get done is grocery shopping and cooking! Do you ever feel like that? Our meals have been easy lately but so satisfying. Even though we are busy we are still eating healthy and not compromising the way we eat. Let me show you what I have been buying …

This is vegan, organic, fat free and it tastes good too! The sodium is higher than I would like at 590 mg – but for a soup to travel with or take camping or on a hiking trip I think it’s okay. Not an every day food for sure.

Kirkland Organic Vegan Black Bean SoupNutmeg Notebook

Finding this product at a main stream store makes me hopeful that we will see more and more vegan/plant based options in the future.

Grocery Store SnacksNutmeg Notebook

These snack items were purchased at a regular grocery store in the health food section. All servings are approximately 100 calories. The Smoky Chili and Lime chickpeas are tasty but do contain added oil. Dry Roasted Edamame 100 calorie packets are my favorite find! For just 100 calories you get 11 g of protein and just 3 g of fat, 115mg sodium so that’s not bad for a store bought snack. The little packet fits into a purse, pocket, back pack or lunch box. Funky Monkey are dried banana slices with cinnamon – very tasty. Barefruit apple chips are just crispy dried apples. I have seen the Good Bean snacks,Funky Monkey and Barefruit products at Whole Foods too.

My garage fridge!Nutmeg Notebook

In the garage is my second fridge that is bursting with fresh produce! We go through a lot of the plastic containers that spinach and baby greens come in so I decided to start recycling them. They make great produce bins in the fridge, I also use them to keep bags of frozen veggies and fruits neat in the freezer too. Some day maybe there will be a plant based/vegan fridge – no meat and cheese drawer and instead more veggie bins!

Nutmeg Notes

This Spring is busy for us as we have a lot of exciting things happening in the weeks to come. I will post about them as time allows.

I am cooking amazing plant based food – in fact I am testing recipes for someone who is going to be publishing a vegan cookbook. It’s a lot of fun – the food is amazing but I can’t share more than that right now. Stay tuned for more details!

I am finally on the radar screen of vegan food companies and getting many offers to try new products. Next month I will be trying some new to me vegan/plant based products and posting reviews.

If you follow theNutmeg Notebook facebook page or Nutmeg Notebook Instagram you can keep up on what I am cooking, reading and thinking about. I find it’s much quicker and easier to post on those venues than the blog right now. I can post from my iPhone or iPad and it only takes a moment of time which means I can post more often. Love it! I am not giving up the blog. I will just be posting about once a week here until life slows down a bit.

Thanks to everyone who continues to visit the blog, read the posts and use the recipes!

You are all awesome!

Happy Trails!

Tami

Please leave a comment or feel free to ask a question.

I am really into citrus fruits right now. I want strawberries but so far they haven’t been very sweet.

Food does take a lot of time, esp when you’re making such wonderful, healthful meals! I’ve been relying on simpler recipes and even that seems to take a lot of time – lol. But it’s worth it to make (mostly, in my case) from scratch and give your family the best nutrition. Exciting stuff happening in your life – can’t wait to hear more about the cookbook and reviews on vegan yummies! My obsession right now is edamame (though I’ve never had the crunchy roasted kind in your post). I can eat it totally plain, I love it so much, though it’s very good with EVOO and a little salt too!

Tami says:

Food prep does take a lot of time Veronica! Like you I feel like it’s worth the work to feed my loved ones and myself good food. I also like edamame – it’s so good alone or in salads and all kinds of dishes. Healthy for you too! Happy Cooking!

Ay Cohen says:

I feel like I spend lots of time food shopping too, especially on weekends but I will make a trip if I am near a store or running low on something. I go through lots of produce, raw salad greens and roasted Brussels sprouts and cauliflower. Looking forward to the spring and summer veggies and fruit to arrive. Your Costco carries products I have not seen in mine. I hope to see some of them in the future.

I have tried to buy raspberries lately but one batch actually had mold in the center of the berries – ugh! I always enjoy bananas and apples. Lately I have been noshing on a lot of broccoli – it takes even better with cheese. Celery is a daily snack for me.

Tami says:

Hi Jill, I hate it when I buy fresh produce and get it home to find it’s moldy in the middle! My husband is also a huge fan of celery, I am constantly cutting it up and filling containers of it to keep in the fridge for snacking.

Donna says:

I love to read your blog and use and enjoy your recipes. I am wondering does your family only eat a strict Vegan Diet? I
I don’t eat any red or processed meat but still enjoy and would miss Salmon and other favorite fish once in awhile.
How do you cook when entertaing, I find that especially difficult. Thanks, Donna

Tami says:

We are empty nesters now so just me and hubby Tom here. He eats about 80% plant based and the other 20% of the time he eats beef, chicken or fish. I don’t fix it at home so he orders when we eat out or when he is traveling for business. At home for us I am cooking all plant based now with very little added oil, salt or sugar. A year ago when we first started moving towards a plant based diet I did have an occasional fish meal and a little bit of chicken a couple of times. I haven’t had any fish for months now and really don’t have any desire for it anymore. That’s not to say that I will never eat fish again -if I decided I want a fish meal I will have one. Our daughter does include some plant based meals in her menu plan for her and her husband each week. Our son survives on restaurant food and does not eat plant based nor is he really interested in trying much of it. I keep a supply of frozen foods for him to help himself to when he is at home at meal time. In the beginning if we had the family over we did go ahead and make something with meat for them. The last few times we have made plant based recipes. See this link http://nutmegnotebook.com/2014/02/plant-based-vegan-entertaining-what-to-serve/ to see what we served one night.

Entertaining non plant eaters really does stump me too! Our taste buds have changed and adapted to this new way of eating but our family and friends are used to a different way of eating. What other plant eaters / vegans have told me is that you can’t serve up the no oil, no salt, no sugar added recipes to those who eat a typical American diet – they just won’t enjoy it. So you need to find recipes that are plant based but still use some of the oil, salt and sweetness to have it be enjoyed.

I am still a work in progress and haven’t done much entertaining since going plant based. Every recipe I try I analyze and think would this taste good to people who don’t eat the way I do? There are two schools of thought on this – choose something the company would be somewhat familiar with and serve them a plant based version of it – or choose something completely new to them so they don’t have anything to compare it with.

There are some foods that people already enjoy that are plant based, beans and rice with tortiallas, chili soup with beans and no meat, pasta dishes with lots of veggies and tomato sauce, stir frys with veggies and tofu, vegetable and grain soups like a barley vegetable, tomato soup, grain salads like a Greek tabbouleh salad without the feta, falafel sandwiches, hummus and veggies, bruchetta, Indian Dal or African Peanut Stew with garbanzo beans, Thai vegetable dishes, veggie lasagna. You don’t realize how many plant based entrees people already enjoy until you stop and think about it.

Dr Fuhrman suggest that people try to eat plant based 90% of the time or have 90% of your daily calories be from nutrient dense plant foods and only 10% come from animal products. So if you eat say 1600 calories a day then 160 of those calories could come from animal products. Your fish could come in under that amount but it would be a small piece of salmon. Some people are able to go straight to a plant based diet and others need to take baby steps and gradually make the change.

For me it has been so worth the effort. I wont’ kid you, it makes your head spin at first trying to think of what to make and figure out what your new daily menu looks like. There are so many resources on the internet and so many awesome books, cookbooks and resources to help you navigate the change.

If you have more questions or want more links, books and such just let me know. If there is an interest I am very happy to blog about it!

Tami says:

Yep it takes a lot of time in the kitchen Andrea! I have gotten better at pairing it down and trying to simplify it at this point and so far so good! Asparagus and artichokes are two of my favorites too! Happy Cooking!

Tami says:

I do use the bananas in smoothies and for making banana soft serve. I let them get all spotty and rip and then I peel them and freeze them for future use. It works really well. Oh the sodium in processed foods is out of sight! You really do have to be a good label detective these days to weed through it all.

Tami says:

Beverly says:

I love buying all my produce at Costco (or Sam’s). The variety and prices beat the grocery store hands down. I only wish I could buy more! Unfortunately I can’t get my family on board with me to eat a lot of the same things and so I feel like I’m trying to eat HUGE bags of produce by myself, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but there are only so many meals in a day! I love to see all your purchases though – gives me great ideas!

Tami says:

You are so right about Costco pricing being better hands down! I understand how difficult it is to eat the produce before it spoils. I am learning to freeze many things before they go bad so I can still enjoy the good prices. Of course there isn’t anything you can do about lettuce! Continue to enjoy your greens and healthy foods!

I’m glad you enjoy the food find posts – they seem to be really popular! I enjoy the feedback!

Oh my gosh…I surely do feel like all I do some days is cook and grocery shop! How funny! I can’t seem to find enough hours in the days for months now. IDK what it is. Love your recycle idea! I need to adopt that too!! My garage fridge is usually full of produce, nuts and flours! lol